12 Hazardous Chemicals Hiding in Your “Clean” Shop Towels

They arrive every week—a big stack of laundered red shop towels—ready for cleaning, wiping and soaking up just about anything. They might look clean, but are they really? You might be in for quite a surprise. But you won’t be alone: According to a survey by Kimberly-Clark Professional, about 56% of workers who used shop towels every day weren’t aware of the exposure risks that laundered shop towels present.

The Long Journey

If shop towels could talk, they’d probably have quite a tale to tell of all of the various places they’ve been and the types of processes they’ve seen. That’s because wipes are generally collected from many different types of facilities before they’re laundered together in large batches. So, your towels are likely to be washed with towels from automotive shops, electronics and heavy equipment manufacturers, food and beverage processing facilities, printers, and other types of businesses in your area.

That means that the towels in the stack you just received most likely are not the same ones you sent to the launderer last week. And that can cause problems—especially if there are chemical residues, metal shavings or other contaminants that could foul up your processes, scratch delicate parts or injure your workforce.

Fresh to Your Door

Commercial launderers are just like any other business: They need to control costs. Water and detergent are two of the variables under their control. So when it comes to washing shop towels, it’s common for them to use cold water and minimal amounts of detergent. That yields towels that still contain grease, oil, chemical residues and heavy metals after they are washed.

A 2011 Gradient survey found that 100% of the “clean” towels collected from 26 different facilities still contained grease, oil and heavy metals. The study also found that the average worker used 12–14 towels a day, and with that kind of usage, the contaminants that were left in the towels after washing exceeded established exposure limits for many of the contaminants.

The residual contaminants in towels can cause dermatitis and other health problems such as nervous system damage, reproductive issues, cancer, and skin and kidney disease. Even workers who use just three towels a day can be exposed to higher levels of lead than are permitted in drinking water. And sadly, in a survey of 263 U.S. manufacturing workers, only 44% were aware of the exposure risks that laundered shop towels present.

Here’s a closer look at 12 of the contaminants, where they are commonly used, and the health hazards they present. Remember that all of these contaminants were found in the towels sampled:

Source: Chemical use and health effect information,
Center for Disease Control and Prevention

A Cleaner, Safer Solution

Are you ready to get rid of the filthy shop towel habit yet? Some people hang on to shop towels because they think that they’re less expensive than disposable wipes. An industry analysis shows that when you figure in the hidden costs of laundered towels and rags — including fuel surcharges, rental fees, disposal and lost towel charges — each towel costs 18 to 28 cents per use. The average cost of a disposable wipe is about 16 cents.

Disposable wipes have other advantages. First, they are clean and safe. Because they’re fresh from the manufacturer, they don’t contain oil, grease, metal shards, heavy metals or other contaminants like shop towels do.

Second, disposable wipes are task-specific. If you’re wiping your hands, there’s a clean, safe, inexpensive wipe for that. If you’re prepping a part for painting or coating, there’s a wipe that’s lint-free and won’t scratch. Need something for scrubbing or wiping with solvents? Disposable wipes have you covered.

Third, disposable wipes are better for the environment. An Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry (INDA) study found that disposable wipers contributed to less than one-tenth of one percent of all industrial wastes placed in landfills.

Studies by Kimberly-Clark have determined that after an average of 12 washes, over 245 million shop towels are landfilled each year, in addition to the 250,000 pounds of hazardous sludge that is extracted from laundry wastewater. On top of that, more than 13 million pounds of hazardous contaminants are discharged from laundries and treated by Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) annually, making shop towels less environmentally friendly than most disposables.

If landfilling isn’t a viable answer for your facility, disposable wipers are also excellent candidates for incineration and fuels blending. These two waste management processes minimize liability and limit or eliminate the need for these wastes to be landfilled.

The Best Option

It’s hard to get everyone on the same page when it comes to wipes. Is it a safety issue? An environmental issue? An accounting issue? Often, it’s all three. But getting everyone in agreement can help improve safety, minimize environmental harm and help the bottom line.

You tell us: What do you use in your facility? Are you still using rags or have you switched to disposable wipes? Let us know in the comments section below!

Karen

Karen D. Hamel, CSP, WACH, is a regulatory compliance professional, trainer and technical writer for New Pig. She has more than 22 years of experience helping EHS professionals find solutions to meet EPA, OSHA and DOT regulations and has had more than 100 articles published on a variety of EHS topics. Karen is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Walkway Auditor Certificate Holder (WACH), Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trainer and hazmat technician. She also serves on the Blair County, Pa., LEPC and has completed a variety of environmental, safety, emergency response, DOT and NIMS courses, including Planning Section Chief. She has conducted seminars at national conferences and webinars for ASSE and other national organizations. She can be reached at 1-800-HOT-HOGS (468-4647) or by email karenea@newpig.com.

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